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FACULTY  ADDRESS. 


/  /rY 

'•Jim, 


4 


JUNE  17,  1890. 


GOVERNOR  O.  M.  ROBERTS. 


/ i THE  RELATION  OF  PUBLIC  EDUCATION  TO  THE  GOVERN¬ 
MENT  OF  THE  STATE  OF  TEXAS. 


ro 


Well  regulated  liberty  in  a  Republican  government  consists  in  freedom  of 
action,  with  checks  provided  to  prevent  abuse.  This  applies  to  individuals, 
families,  communities,  institutions,  departments,  and  to  the  government  itself. 
This  rule  of  action  in  a  republic  stands  in  direct  opposition  to  absolutism, — 
absolutism,  or  unbridled  independence,  in  any  of  the  operations  of  the  gov¬ 
ernment.  The  State  of  Texas,  having  assumed  control  of  the  education  of 
its  people,  the  schools,  instituted  by  it  for  that  purpose,  must  be  regulated  by 
the  rule  mentioned,  the  same  as  any  other  part  of  the  administration  of  the 
government. 

The  Constitution  of  1876  makes  it  the  duty  of  the  government  to  promote 
education,  in  the  modes  and  by  the  means  therein  specified.  It  names  the 
schools  of  different  kinds  and  grades,  and  makes  provision  for  their  support. 
They  are  therefore  included  within  the  ordinary  operations  of  the  government. 

Although  the  public  schools  have  been  given  a  fixed  position  as  part  of  the 
government,  they  are  not  vested  with  the  same  independent  control  in  their 
management,  as  if  the  school  system  had  been  made  a  department  of  the 
government. 

The  Constitution  divides  the  powers  of  the  government  between  three  dis¬ 
tinct  departments,  each  of  which  shall  be  confined  to  a  separate  body  of 
magistracy,  to-wit :  Those  that  are  legislative  to  one,  those  which  are  execu¬ 
tive  to  another,  and  those  which  are  judicial  to  another.  One  department 
can  not  exercise  the  power  of  another,  and  thereby  the  independence  of  each 
one  is  secured,  in  its  allotted  sphere  of  action  as  prescribed  by  the  Constitu¬ 
tion. 

The  qualifications  of  the  persons,  who  are  to  fill  those  three  departments 
are  specified,  and  certain  powers  and  duties  applicable  to  each  of  them  are 
defined.  The  legislative  department  is  the  controlling  power  in  the  govern¬ 
ment.  First,  because  by  impeachment,  it  may  remove  the  officers  of  the  ex¬ 
ecutive  and  judicial  departments,  and  second,  under  its  general  legislative 
powers,  as  well  as  under  those  expressly  conferred  on  it,  it  may  pass  laws 
prescribing  other  duties  and  powers  for  other  departments,  not  inconsistent 
with  those  given  them  in  the  Constitution. 

There  are  other  subjects  of  government  referred  to  in  the  Constitution, 
which  are  connected  with,  or  are  incidental  to  the  departments,  for  which  the 
Legislature  prescribes  rules  of  action,  as  the  Adjutant-General’s  office  and  the 
militia  in  connection  with  the  Governor’s  office  ;  the  county  surveyor’s  office, 
in  connection  with  the  office  of  the  Commissioner  of  the  General  Land  Office; 
the  tax  assessor’s  and  collector’s  offices  in  connection  with  the  Comptroller’s 

k/lMLL  < 


2 


FACULTY  ADDRESS 


office;  the  county  commissioner’s  courts  and  municipal  corporations,  as  legis¬ 
lative  agencies  for  local  government;  and  the  Commission  of  Appeals,  and  the 
penitentiaries,  in  connection  with  the  judicial  department. 

There  are  other  subjects  of  government  referred  to  in  the  Constitution,  that 
are  not  given  a  place  in  either  department,  as  an  active  factor  therein,  but 
which  are  made  subject  in  their  operations  to  such  laws  of  the  legislative  de¬ 
partment,  as  are  not  in  contravention  to  the  terms  of  the  Constitution  relat¬ 
ing  thereto.  Of  this  class  may  be  mentioned  railroad  corporations,  the  office 
of  Insurance,  Statistics,  and  History,  the  quarantine,  the  asylums,  and  the 
public  schools. 

Though  the  funds  designed  for  the  support  of  the  different  schools  are 
designated,  and  secured  from  diversion  to  other  objects,  their  management 
and  disposition  are  confided  to  the  Legislature.  And,  though  the  general 
objects  of  the  different  schools  are  indicated,  their  organization  and  mode  of 
operation  are  left  to  the  direction  of  the  Legislature.  The  school  system  does 
not  constitute  a  department  of  the  goverment,  is  not  a  corporation  with  cor¬ 
porate  controlling  powers,  and  is  merely  an  agency  to  accomplish  an  object 
under  the  direction  of  the  Legislature.  That  object  is  the  education  of  the 
rising  generation  of  the  people  of  Texas.  The  important  responsibility  rests 
upon  the  Legislature  to  determine  what  subjects  they  shall  be  taught,  and 
how  they  shall  be  taught,  in  the  different  schools.  This  leads  to  a  consider¬ 
ation  of  the  uses  of  a  general  system  of  public  education  in  this  country. 
For  it  should  be  directed  and  controlled  according  to  its  usefulness,  in  main¬ 
taining  and  improving  the  civilization  of  the  people.  The  idea  here  expressed, 
however  correct,  is  too  general  to  be  practical.  Society  as  it  now  exists,  and 
will  continue  to  exist,  is  divided  into  different  classes  of  pursuits.  As  the 
State  has  undertaken  the  business  of  education,  it  should  furnish  that  sort, 
which  is  adapted  to  fit  each  class  of  usefulness  in  its  appropriate  sphere.  The 
great  body  of  the  people  must  work  for  a  livelihood,  as  common  laborers, 
farmers,  stockmen,  herdsmen,  mechanics,  and  employes  in  works  of  different 
kinds.  For  this  large  class  is  demanded  a  good,  practical  common  school 
education,  that  will  fit  them  for  intelligent  efficiency  in  their  business.  They 
constitute  the  substratum  force,  that  promotes  the  material  prosperity  of  the 
country.  They  are  a  perpetually  continuing  body,  although  exceptional  cases 
will  occur,  m  which  individuals  of  this  class  will  be  rising  up  into  higher 
employment,  requiring  skill,  or  the  management  of  capital  in  trade,  or  in 
other  avocations  wherein  extra  energy,  enterprise  and  intelligence  are  em¬ 
ployed.  In  this  way,  our  rich  merchants,  bankers,  large  farmers,  master 
mechanics,  big  stockmen,  grocers,  hotel  keepers,  editors,  teachers,  insurance 
officers,  and  traders  are  generally  produced. 

A  few  of  this  class,  having  received  a  common  school  education,  are  in¬ 
spired  by  a  laudable  ambition  to  struggle  up  to  the  acquisition  of  a  higher 
education,  in  the  academies,  colleges,  or  universities  to  fit  them  for  more  in¬ 
tellectual  pursuits. 

For  such  persons,  as  well  as  for  those  whose  means  enable  them  to  avail 
themselves  of  such  advantages,  higher  schools  should  be  furnished  by  the 
State  to  fit  them  for  the  learned  professions,  for  statesmen  and  jurists,  for 
college  professors,  for  civil  engineers,  and  for  scientists  generally.  This  kind 
is  necessary  in  aiding,  and  giving  direction,  and  improvement  to  the  material 
development,  general  well  being,  and  social  advancement  of  the  whole  com¬ 
munity.  This  too,  must  exist  as  a  permanent  class  in  the  country,  and  if  they 
are  not  fostered  and  produced  within  the  State,  they  will  be  imported  into  it. 
There  should  be  a  proper  proportion  of  the  different  classes  according  to  the 
needs  of  the  country.  They  are  mutually  dependent  upon  each  other.  Their 
harmonious  co  operation  is  requisite  to  produce  the  best  results,  in  the  effort 


FACULTY  ADDRESS. 


3 


to  elevate  the  whole  people  in  the  scale  of  civilization.  A  large  surplus  of 
highly  educated  persons,  as  it  is  said  exists  now  in  Germany,  is  an  evil,  as 
they  would  be  unfitted  for  other  employments.  A  college  graduate  would 
not  make  a  good  plowman,  cotton  picker,  or  blacksmith.  Indeed,  if  we  will 
look  around,  we  will  find  few  good  business  men  in  the  higher  employments 
of  labor  and  enterprise  with  college  diplomas.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the 
whole  people  in  the  country  had  a  good  common  school  education,  and  thei  ° 
was  a  marked  deficiency  of  learned  people,  they  would  be  like  an  army  with 
out  leaders;  and  worse  still,  if  a  large  part  of  the  people  had  no  education 
at  all. 

It  is  the  law  of  progress,  that  the  whole  people  must  rise  together  or  not  at 
all;  the  broader  and  stronger  the  base  the  higher  the  pyramid  may  rise  or  as¬ 
cend.  Various  speculative  reasons  have  been  assigned  by  the  friends  of  ed¬ 
ucation,  why  the  government  should  establish  and  support  an  efficient  system 
of  public  free  schools.  The  reason  given  in  the  Constitution  is,  that  a  general 
diffusion  of  knowledge  is  essential  to  the  preservation  of  the  liberties  and  rights 
of  the  people.  It  will  be  well  if  such  a  diffusion  of  knowledge  can  be  ac¬ 
quired,  by  the  support  given  to  all  of  the  schools  of  the  State,  including  the 
highest,  as  well  as  the  lowest  in  grade.  They  can  at  least  lay  the  foundation 
for  acquiring  such  a  diffusion  of  knowledge,  and  that  of  itself  is  reason 
enough.  In  the  present  struggle  for  power,  and  material  advantages  through¬ 
out  all  civilized  countries,  a  useful  education  of  all  sorts  is  a  necessity,  in  or¬ 
der  to  keep  a  people  in  harmony  with  the  progress  of  the  age;  without  which, 
no  organized  association  of  people  can  preserve  their  equality,  and  maintain 
their  prosperity. 

Experience,  in  the  absence  of  interference  by  the  government,  shows  that 
the  primary,  or  preparatory,  part  of  the  education  of  the  people  is  divided 
into  three  classes  of  schools,  to- wit:  common  schools  for  the  millions,  acad¬ 
emies  for  the  thousands,  and  colleges  or  universities  for  the  hundreds.  To 
these  are  added  the  perfecting  schools,  to- wit:  the  law  and  medical  schools, 
and  the  normal  schools,  and  the  agricultural  and  mechanical  schools.  When 
the  government  takes  charge  of  the  subject  it  is  reasonable  and  proper  that 
it  should  observe  and  provide  for  all  such  schools,  in  their  natural  order,  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  demands  of  each  to  secure  proficiency  as  far  as  practicable. 

For  the  support  of  the  public  free  schools,  there  is  ample  provision  made 
in  the  Constitution,  by  lands  and  bonds  for  the  permanent  fund,  the  proceeds 
of  which,  supplemented  by  taxes  levied  by  the  Legislature,  constituting  the 
available  funci,  is  annually  apportioned  by  the  Board  of  Education  (the  Gov¬ 
ernor,  Comptroller,  and  Secretary  of  State,)  to  the  counties,  according  to 
their  respective  numbers  of  scholastic  population.  Flexible  arrangements 
are  also  provided  for  the  institution  of  those  schools  to  suit  the  condition  of 
the  different  localities,  both  in  the  country  and  in  the  cities  and  towns,  so 
that  in  the  country,  either  the  community  or  district  system  may  be  adopted, 
to  suit  the  convenience  or  wishes  of  the  inhabitants,  and  cities  and  towns  may 
be  made  separate  districts  and  an  additional  tax  may  be  voted  to  increase 
the  duration  of  their  schools.  For  the  supervision  of  those  schools  there  has 
been  a  provision  for  a  State  superintendent,  county,  city,  and  town  superin¬ 
tendents,  and  local  trustees.  By  an  examination  of  this  organization  of  the 
public  free  schools,  it  will  be  observed  that  while  the  immediate  management, 
including  the  selection  of  teachers  and  books,  is  confided  to  trustees  selected 
in  the  locality  of  the  schools,  by  those  most  interested  in  them,  means  have 
been  provided,  through  the  different  grades  of  supervision,  to  produce  uni¬ 
formity  of  management,  as  far  as  practicable;  and  by  reports  coming  up 
through  the  superintendents,  the  Legislature  may  be  informed,  as  it  should 


4 


FACULTY  ADDRESS. 


be,  of  the  condition  and  progress  of  every  part  of  the  whole  system  of  public 
free  schools  in  the  State. 

All  such  public  schools  are  required  by  law  to  have  taught  in  them  orthog¬ 
raphy,  rrading  in  English,  penmanship,  arithmetic,  English  grammar,  mod¬ 
ern  geography,  and  composition,  and  other  branches,  as  may  be  agreed  upon 
by  the  trustees  or  directed  by  the  superintendent.  No  such  discretion  should 
be  left  to  the  superintendent  and  trustees.  A  student  that  is  made  really 
proficient  in  the  branches  that  are  named,  has  an  education,  that  is  fully  suf¬ 
ficient  for  usefulness  in  all  of  the  ordinary  occupations,  in  which  the  mass  of 
the  people  are  engaged.  It  is  the  very  best  foundation  for  a  higher  educa¬ 
tion.  Indeed  most  persons,  who  have  graduated  in  colleges,  when  they  en¬ 
gage  in  the  practical  business  of  life,  are  apt  to  find,  that  their  learning  in 
these  elementary  branches  is  deficient,  because  they  had  not  been  properly 
impressed  at  school  with  their  importance.  These  branches  will  be  neglected, 
just  in  proportion  as  other  higher  branches  are  attempted  to  be  taught  in  the 
common  schools.  It  would  be  a  positive  evil,  by  misleading  the  minds  of 
the  pupils,  as  to  what  constitutes  a  good  practical  education,  and  would  cause 
them  to  waste  their  time  upon  branches  of  study,  that  they  could  not  acquire 
any  proficiency  in.  Furthermore,  the  Legislature  has  imposed  upon  it  the 
duty  of  providing  for  an  efficient  system  of  public  free  schools.  How  can  it 
be  known,  that  the  schools  are  efficient  in  the  branches  named,  if  the  authority 
is  deputed  to  the  trustees,  and  superintendent,  to  introduce  in  the  schools 
any  other  branches,  that  they  may  choose  under  the  promptings  of  the  thou¬ 
sands  of  different  teachers  in  the  State.  The  fact,  that  it  is  to  be  a  system 

throughout  the  State,  implies  that  it  should  have  a  uniform,  orderly  arrange¬ 
ment,  and  have  that  arrangement  strictly  enforced,  as  prescribed  by  the 
authority,  that  is  responsible  for  it.  If  by  advice  with  good  practical  teach¬ 
ers,  other  branches  of  education  should  be  added  to  the  list,  the  Legislature 
could  do  it,  and  still  preserve  the  equality  and  uniformity  in  the  whole  sys¬ 
tem.  It  may  be  argued,  that  this  discretion,  to  introduce  other  and  higher 

branches  in  the  common  schools,  is  to  accommodate  scholars  over  the  scho¬ 
lastic  age,  that  have  finished  the  prescribed  course.  That  is  the  very  thing 
that  should  be  avoided;  for  it  is  well  known  that  teachers  who  are  capable 
of  teaching  higher  branches,  take  more  pride,  and  often  devote  more  atten¬ 
tion  to  teaching  them,  than  the  prescribed  branches,  and  to  that  extent  the 
pupils  of  the  scholastic  age  are  in  danger  of  being  neglected  ;  whereas,  they 
are  the  intended  beneficiaries  of  the  public  free  schools.  Common  schools 
can  not  be  made  colleges,  but  should  be  restricted  to  their  proper  province 
in  the  general  system  of  education,  and  when  that  is  done,  and  done  strictly, 
they  will  be  a  general  blessing  to  the  country,  that  will  meet  with  the  ap¬ 
proval  of  a  united  people  in  favor  of  public  education  by  the  State. 

The  normal  schools  are  the  creatures  of  the  Legislature,  and  are  not  men¬ 
tioned  in  the  Constitution.  They  were  instituted  to  train  the  teachers  at  a  time, 
that  there  was  no  uniformity  in  the  mode  of  teaching  in  the  common  schools 
throughout  the  State .  They  were  not  intended  to  be  schools  for  teaching  pu¬ 
pils,  further  than  to  perfect  them  in  the  best  modes  of  teaching,  and  in  learning 
the  common  school  branches.  For  that  purpose,  provision  was  made  to  collect 
them  from  all  parts  of  the  State,  and  give  them  such  training  at  the  public  ex¬ 
pense,  and  send  them  back  obligated  to  teach  in  the  public  schools.  They  are 
emphatically  an  adjunct,  and  part  of  the  public  free  school  system  of  the  State, 
and  should  be  kept  so.  Would  it  not  have  been  a  strange  and  unheard  of 
thing,  to  establish  a  school  in  this  State  to  teach  a  select  body  of  young  men 
and  young  women  with  free  tuition,  free  board  and  lodging,  with  books  and 
stationery  furnished  free  at  the  public  dxpense?  If  the  object  had  been 
merely  to  educate  them,  that  is,  to  make  them  better  scholars,  such  partiality 


FACULTY  ADDRESS. 


*  5 

to  them  would  have  been  an  outrage  upon  common  sense  and  common  justice. 
There  was  no  such  design.  They  were  established  to  train  teachers  to  teach 
in  the  public  schools,  and  inaugurate  the  best  mode  of  teaching  uniformly 
throughout  the  State.  That  was  and  still  is  the  true  consideration  for  the 
liberal  outlay  of  money  by  the  State  for  their  support. 

In  this  view  of  their  object,  they  should  be  under  the  same  control  and 
supervision  as  are  the  public  free  schools,  and  the  branches  taught  in  them 
should  be  prescribed  by  the  Legislature  in  the  same  way,  with  a  direct  per¬ 
tinency  to  the  fitting  of  teachers  for  efficient  work,  in  the  public  free  schools. 
If  the  Legislature  should  fail  to  keep  them  in  their  proper  sphere,  the  ambi¬ 
tion  of  teachers,  laudable  in  the  general  cause  of  education  as  it  may  be,  will 
aspire  to  make  them  colleges  of  high  education,  and  they  will  be  perverted 
from  their  original  purpose;  and  when  that  is  accomplished,  the  State  would 
be  under  no  obligation  to  bestow  such  an  exceptional  bounty  upon  them.  It 
is  but  just  to  say,  that  those  normal  schools  have  already  been  of  an  incalcu¬ 
lable  benefit  to  the  education  of  the  State,  and  have  largely  helped  to  engender 
a  general  spirit  of  education  all  over  the  State,  that  never  existed  before  their 
establishment.  Their  scholars  have  gone  to  all  parts  of  the  State,  and  have 
done  good  work  in  the  schools.  It  should  be  noted,  however,  that  the  public 
free  schools  are  increasing  in  numbers  every  year  far  beyond  the  present  ca¬ 
pacity  of  those  schools  to  supply  them.  To  remedy  that,  to  some  extent,  no 
pupil  should  be  allowed  in  the  normal  schools,  without  standing  a  reasonably 
fair  examination  upon  the  branches  taught  in  the  public  free  schools.  No 
pupil,  whether  a  free  or  paying  scholar,  should  remain  in  the  school  longer  than 
one  session,  that  being  sufficient  to  give  the  necessary  training,  if  that  is  made 
the  leading  object  of  the  schools,  as  it  should  be.  And  all  of  them  alike,  who 
receive  the  benefit  of  the  schools,  should  be  placed  under  obligation  to  teach 
in  the  schools  of  the  State.  By  such  means  those  schools  would  be  placed  in 
their  true  distinctive  position,  and  kept  so.  Any  other  course  will  cause  them 
to  be  filled  by  persons,  who  are  seeking  a  general  education,  who  will  not  be 
found  teaching  in  the  common  schools  as  a  business,  but  will  make  it  the 
means  of  qualifying  themselves  for  other  professions,  as  some  of  them  have 
already  done.  What  has  been  said  is  prompted  by  the  belief,  that  these  nor¬ 
mal  schools,  inspired  with  the  importance  of,  and  singly  devoted  to  their  true 
mission,  would  elevate  the  standard  of  practical  education  of  the  mass  of  the 
people  more  effectively,  than  it  can  be  done  in  any  other  way,  and  that  no 
other  schools  in  the  State  would  deserve  a  more  anxious  consideration  and 
fostering  care  by  the  Legislature.  He  who  would  lead  in  the  grand  work 
of  planting  firmly  in  the  public  free  schools  throughout  the  State  the  senti¬ 
ment,  that  their  first  and  highest  duty  is  to  perfect  their  pupils  in  the  com¬ 
mon  branches  of  a  primary  education,  would  deserve  as  much  honor  as  the 
highest  professor  of  any  college  or  university  in  the  land. 

Academies  are  necessary  in  a  complete  system  of  education.  Strange  to 
say,  the  Convention  of  1875,  in  mapping  out  and  making  provision  for  a 
system,  made  no  provision  for  any  intermediate  schools,  between  the  Univer¬ 
sity  with  its  branches,  and  the  public  free  schools.  It  is  stranger  still,  in 
view  of  the  fact,  that  as  early  as  1889,  four  leagues  of  land  had  been  given 
to  each  county  to  establish  an  academy  in  it.  The  counties  had  incurred  the 
expense  of  locating  and  taking  care  of  the  lands,  and  many,  if  not  most  of 
them  still  have  their  lands,  or  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  them  securely  in¬ 
vested.  As  new  counties  were  formed,  laws  were  passed  from  time  to  time 
giving  them  their  lands,  as  had  been  given  to  the  original  counties.  The 
omission  is  unaccountable,  except  upon  the  supposition,  that  it  was  thought  * 
to  be  practicable  then  to  provide  for  the  public  free  schools,  and  for  none 
other  of  a  higher  grade.  Still  it  is  submitted,  that  could  have  been  done, 


6 


FACULTY  ADDRESS. 


without  diverting  the  donation  from  the  object  originally  designed.  The 
Constitution  recognizes  the  (sec.  6,  art.  7,)  right  of  the  counties  to  hold  and 
dispose  of  their  lands,  and  provides  that,  “Said  lands  and  the  proceeds 
thereof,  when  sold,  shall  be  held  by  said  counties,  as  a  trust  for  the  benefit 
of  public  free  schools  therein.” 

By  the  school  law  (Act  of  1884)  the  county  judge,  in  apportioning  money 
to  the  several  school  districts  or  communities,  is  required  to  add  the  county 
fund,  if  any,  to  that  which  is  received  by  his  county  from  the  State.  This  is 
a  legislative  construction,  that,  by  the  Constitution,  the  fund,  originally  given 
to  the  counties  to  establish  academies,  has  been  apportioned  to  the  support  of 
the  public  free  schools.  That  construction  is  favored  by  the  terms  used,  “for 
the  benefit  of  the  public  schools  therein,”  and  by  the  entire  omission  of  the 
word  “academy”  in  the  Constitution.  There  should  be  an  amendment  of 
the  Constitution,  which  would  permit  the  counties  to  use  the  fund,  derived 
from  said  lands,  in  the  establishment  of  academies.  Such  an  intermediate 
school  is  necessary  to  prepare  students  for  the  University  and  its  branches. 
Such  schools  would  enable  many  persons  to  get  a  higher  education,  than  it  is 
practicable  to  have  them  furnished  with,  in  the  public  free  schools,  and  who 
can  not  attend  the  University.  Without  such  an  intermediate  school,  there 
may  be  an  effort,  in  the  public  free  schools  to  raise  their  standard  to  supply 
the  defect,  and  in  the  University  to  lower  its  standard  to  receive  students, 
and  thereby  both  ends  of  the  system  would  be  prejudiced. 

A  county  being  authorized  to  establish  an  academy  of  its  own,  its  citizens 
in  all  parts  would  be  induced  to  take  a  lively  interest  in  it,  as  their  own  in¬ 
stitution  of  learning,  to  which  they  could  send  their  children,  after  they  had 
attended  the  public  free  schools,  and  there  prepare  them  for  entering  the 
University,  or  some  of  its  branches,  or  at  least  give  them  a  higher  education, 
if  not  able  to  send  them  to  the  University. 

To  supply  the  place  of  such  a  school,  to  some  extent,  in  the  cities  and 
towns,  that  have  assumed  control  of  their  schools  as  separate  districts,  city 
high  schools  have  been  established  in  connection  with  their  public  free  schools. 
These  have  largely  increased,  just  before,  and  since  the  establishment  of  the 
main  University  at  Austin.  The  Faculty  of  the  University,  when  requested, 
have  sent  one  of  their  number  to  inspect  those  schools,  and  when  their  teaching 
has  been  reported  and  approved,  their  graduates  are  received  into  the  Uni¬ 
versity  without  an  examination.  Up  to  the  present  time,  there  are  reported 
in  the  catalogue  only  twenty-one  such  auxiliary  schools  in  the  whole  State. 
There  may  be  more  that  are  competent,  that  have  not  applied  to  be  examined. 

These  city  schools  were  established  under  a  laudable  effort  to  supply  a 
public  necessity,  still  they  are  not  full  substitutes  for  county  academies. 
They  are  confined  to  the  cities  or  towns  mainly  in  their  benefits.  Compara¬ 
tively  few  of  all  the  pupils  of  the  cities  or  towns  attend  them,  yet  the  taxes 
levied  to  support  them  are  collected  equally  from  the  large  body  of  citizens 
who  receive  no  direct  benefit  from  them.  They  might  be  aispensed  with, 
if  the  county  academy  was  established,  in  which  the  people  of  the  county, 
as  well  as  those  in  the  city,  would  be  equally  interested  and  benefited. 

The  last  in  the  ascending  grade  of  the  system  of  public  schools  is  the  Uni¬ 
versity  of  Texas.  The  Constitution  of  1876  provides  that  “the  Legislature 
shall,  as  soon  as  practicable,  establish,  organize,  and  provide  for  the  main¬ 
tenance,  support,  and  direction  of  a  University  of  the  first  class,  to  be  located 
by  a  vote  of  the  people  of  the  State,  and  styled  ‘The  University  of  Texas,’ 
for  the  promotion  of  literature  and  the  arts  and  sciences,  including  an  agri¬ 
cultural  and  mechanical  department.” 

It  provided  further  that  the  Agricultural  College,  previously  established  in 
Brazos  County,  should  “be  made  and  constituted  a  branch  of  the  University 


FACULTY  ADDRESS. 


7 


of  Texas  for  instruction  in  agriculture,  the  mechanic  arts  and  the  natural 
sciences  connected  therewith,”  and  also  that  the  Legislature  shall,  when 
deemed  practicable,  establish  and  provide  for  a  college  or  branch  University 
for  the  instruction  of  the  colored  youths  of  the  State,  to  be  located  by  a  vote 
of  the  people.” 

By  acts  of  the  Legislature,  elections  were  held,  and  the  main  University 
was  located  at  Austin,  and  the  medical  department  at  Galveston,  and  the 
college  or  branch  University  for  the  colored  youths,  was  located  at  Austin.  In 
the  establishment  of  the  main  University  in  September  1883,  the  law  depart¬ 
ment  was  established  in  connection  with  it,  by  the  action  of  the  Board  of 
Regents,  and  has  been  carried  on  contemporaneously  with  it.  There  has  been 
some  provision  for  the  establishment  of  the  medical  department,  but  none 
whatever  for  the  branch  for  the  colored  youths.  The  agricultural  and  me¬ 
chanical  branch  has  been  in  operation  since  1876,  under  a  board  of  directors. 
Preparatory  to  the  establishment  of  the  University,  a  Board  of  Regents  was 
created  in  1881.  As  all  of  these  branches  constitute  “  The  University  of 
Texas,”  that  is,  one  University,  they  should  be  under  one  board,  for  their 
direction  and  government.  The  two  boards  united  wmuld  make  a  board  of 
thirteen  members,  which  would  not  be  too  numerous,  and  still  it  could  be 
composed  of  persons  well  qualified  to  give  the  proper  direction  and  encour¬ 
agement  to  each  of  the  branches,  according  to  their  relative  positions  in  uni¬ 
versity  education.  It  would  tend  also  to  prevent  any  contention  and  rivalry, 
by  the  effort  to  advance  one  branch  to  the  detriment  of  the  others,  and  to 
confine  each  branch  to  its  appropriate  sphere  in  the  system.  There  is  as  much 
propriety  in  having  separate  boards  of  directors  for  the  law  department,  and 
the  medical  department,  as  for  the  agricultural  and  mechanical  department. 
Such  a  state  of  things  would  result  in  a  struggle  in  the  Legislature,  each 
branch  enlisting  its  advocates  for  peculiar  advantages,  resulting  in  general 
confusion.  The  country  has  witnessed  enough  of  this  already  with  only  two 
boards.  There  is  no  need  of  conflict  or  rivalry  between  the  branches,  but  all 
being  under  the  same  board,  each  branch  should  be  promoted  in  its  peculiar 
province,  according  to  its  relative  importance,  consistently  with  the  means 
furnished  by  the  State  to  support  all  of  them. 

The  Constitution  requires  the  Legislature  to  provide  for  the  direction  of  a 
University.  As  the  Legislature  is  thus  held  responsible  for  what  is  taught, 
and  for  the  manner  of  teaching  anct  controlling  it  in  ail  of  its  branches,  meas¬ 
ures  should  be  adopted,  that  would  be  adequate  to  that  requirement.  The 
one  board  could  be  composed  of  lawyers,  doctors,  mechanics,  farmers,  and 
of  highly  learned  and  scientific  gentlemen,  who  would  be  able  to  inspect  the 
operations  of  each  branch  personally  during  the  session  of  the  schools,  as  well 
as  at  the  close  of  them. 

For  the  services  thus  rendered  by  them  they  should  be  amply  compensated. 
Their  reports  to  the  Legislature  would  then  represent  information  acquired 
by  themselves.  Good  teachers  would  gladly  welcome  such  a  visit  to  their 
school  rooms  for  the  inspection  of  their  work.  The  meeting  of  the  board  at 
the  commencement  is  valuable  mainly  in  giving  countenance,  and  their  per¬ 
sonal  influence  to  the  occasion,  and  to  the  institution  generally.  The  two 
boards  as  now  organized,  composed  of  gentlemen,  who  are  engrossed  in  their 
private  business,  and  serving  without  compensation,  can  be  expected  to  do 
but  little  more  than  sanction  the  reports,  presented  to  them  by  the  respective 
faculties.  The  law  requiring  the  Legislature  to  appoint  a  board  of  visitors  to 
attend  the  annual  examinations  has  never  been  complied  with,  and  if  it  had 
been,  it  would  not  have  been  a  practical  inspection  of  their  efficiency  in  teach¬ 
ing,  or  of  the  government  of  the  schools.  A  thorough  inspection  of  the  teach¬ 
ing  and  government  of  all  the  schools,  in  each  branch  of  the  University, 


8 


FACULTY  ADDRESS. 


properly  reported  to  the  Legislature  by  a  single  board,  based  upon  their  own 
information  and  knowledge,  would  inspire  increased  confidence,  and  enlist  a 
lively  interest  in  the  cause  of  higher  education,  that  would  greatly  tend  to 
insure  a  liberal  support  of  the  University  in  all  of  its  branches. 

The  Constitution  required  the  Legislature,  as  soon  as  practicable,  to  estab¬ 
lish  a  University  of  the  first  class.  What  was  meant  by  the  expression  “of 
the  first  class?”  Certainly  not  first  class  in  the  number  of  professors  em¬ 
ployed.  That  would  have  required  the  employment  of  fifty  or  more  pro¬ 
fessors,  which  would  have  postponed  its  establishment  indefinitely.  There 
had  been  two  attempts  by  the  Legislature  before  1881,  which  had  failed. 
Surely  the  condition  of  the  country,  and  the  increased  necessity  for  home  ed¬ 
ucation  of  a  higher  standard  demanded  its  establishment,  and  that  there 
should  be  an  effort  to  inaugurate  it,  with  the  means  that  had  been,  or  might 
be  furnished.  It  could  not  have  been  expected,  however  long  it  might  have 
been  deferred,  to  be  started  into  existence  as  a  first  class  university  in  every 
respect,  but  only  to  be  first  class  in  all  respects,  when  it  was  practical  to  make 
it  so  in  the  progress  of  its  development,  as  many  other  first  class  universities 
have  been  made. 

There  was  only  one  way,  that  was  then  practicable  to  start  it  upon  a  high 
standard,  looking  to  its  ultimately  reaching  the  first  class.  That  was  to  es¬ 
tablish  only  such  a  number  of  professorships  as  could  be  paid  competent  sal¬ 
aries,  by  which  able  professors  could  be  employed,  whose  teachings  would  be 
of  a  first  class  order.  That  plan  was  adopted  in  the  origin  of  the  main  Uni¬ 
versity.  From  the  desire  to  increase  the  courses  of  study  and  number  of 
teachers,  and  from  the  want  of  adequate  means  of  support  for  those  objects, 
that  policy  has  not  been  strictly  adhered  to.  Its  importance  will  be  appre¬ 
ciated,  when  it  is  considered,  that  competent  teachers  generally  make  teach¬ 
ing  the  business  of  their  lives.  They  are  valuable  according  to  the  ability 
and  reputation  which  they  acquire  in  the  business,  and  as  their  services  will 
be  in  demand.  Unless  they  have  a  reasonable  surety  of  permanent  and  ade¬ 
quate  compensation,  according  to  their  merits,  they  will  be  forced  to  be  in 
the  market  for  the  highest  bidder.  Thus  the  University  may,  from  time  to 
time,  lose  its  best  teachers.  Deserving  teachers  ought  not  to  be  subjected  to 
such  a  precarious  position,  but  should  be  placed  in  a  position  to  feel  them¬ 
selves  permanently  identified  with  the  University,  and  to  have  a  personal 
pride  in  its  prosperity  and  high  standing.  A  university  should  not  be  de¬ 
pendent  for  its  reputation  upon  any  one  professor,  but  such  a  body  of  teach¬ 
ers  should  be  kept  permanently  in  its  different  branches,  as  would  establish 
and  maintain  its  high  character,  irrespective  of  the  public  estimate  placed 
upon  any  one  of  its  professors,  so  that  the  loss  of  any  one  of  them  would  not 
detract  from  the  institution  itself. 

While  each  branch  and  department  of  the  University  is  essential  in  a  sys¬ 
tem  of  public  education,  the  academic  department  of  the  main  University  at 
Austin  should  be  regarded  as  the  most  important,  and  as  deserving  the  most 
liberal  support  to  secure  its  prosperity. 

It,  above  all  other  schools,  must  be  looked  to  as  fixing  the  standard  of  ex¬ 
cellence  in  education,  whose  influence  should  permeate  the  whole  State,  and 
set  the  example  of  thorough  and  accurate  teaching  in  all  the  schools.  It,  in 
its  nature,  is  capable  of  great  extension  in  the  objects  to  which  it  may  be  de¬ 
voted,  when  their  enlargement  may  become  practicable.  The  efforts  of  the 
State  of  Texas  to  promote  education  will  be  judged  of  at  home  and  abroad 
largely  by  the  character  it  may  be  made  to  acquire  and  maintain.  Unlike 
other  schools,  its  sphere  of  operation  is  unlimited.  It  may  be  made  to  em¬ 
brace  the  tearing  of  the  world  in  literature,  art,  and  science.  The  departments 
of  law,  of  medicine,  and  of  agriculture  and  mechanics  are  special  schools  to 


FACULTY  ADDRESS. 


9 


prepare  persons  for  their  life-work  in  Texas.  It  is  proper  that  they  should 
he  instituted  and  carried  on  for  the  promotion  of  their  specific  objects.  The 
government  and  laws  of  Texas  are  in  many  respects  peculiar,  which  can  be 
learned  here  better  by  a  law  student,  than  in  any  other  institution  outside  of 
the  State.  The  law  department,  as  well  as  the  academic  department,  has 
suffered  some  disadvantages  from  the  want  of  a  proper  number  of  academies, 
or  intermediate  high  schools,  to  prepare  students  with  the  proper  degree  of 
education  to  profitably  enter  the  University.  Still  it  is  believed  that  enough 
of  them  have  been  prepared  to  receive  the  full  benefit  of  the  teaching  here, 
that  will  reflect  credit  on  the  institution. 

In  favor  of  a  medical  department  it  may  be  said  that  Texas,  like  every 
other  country,  has  phases  of  diseases  and  curative  principles,  to  some  extent 
peculiar  to  itself,  which  will  make  that  department  advantageous  to  our  med¬ 
ical  students,  as  well  as  beneficial  to  those  upon  whom  they  may  practice 
afterward. 

The  agriculture  of  Texas  has  a  diversity  of  productions,  depending  upon 
its  various  conditions  of  climate,  topography,  meteorology,  rainfall,  and  fer¬ 
tility  of  soils  of  different  kinds,  that  would  make  the  study  of  it  in  all  parts 
of  the  State  a  comprehensive  science  in  itself.  There  is  no  branch  of  educa¬ 
tion  that  would  be  more  useful  to  our  people  in  a  material  point  of  view  than 
it  could  be  made.  To-day  we  need  skilled  farmers,  gardeners,  orchardists, 
and  stockmen,  as  much  as  we  need  lawyers,  doctors,  and  professors.  Who 
are  our  mechanics,  architects,  bridge  builders,  engineers,  and  machinists?  For 
the  most  part  they  are  imported  from  other  States  and  countries,  and  are 
reaping  the  benefits  of  remunerative  employments,  that,  in  the  future,  native 
born  citizens  should  be  fitted  to  fill.  We  have  a  right  to  look  to  this  school 
to  educate  and  train  all  these  skilled  laborers  of  both  the  classes  here  referred 
to.  The  means,  for  the  support  of  this  institution  was  given  to  the  State  by 
the  government  of  the  United  States,  as  an  experiment,  in  the  effort  to  edu¬ 
cate  and  train  skilled  laborers.  The  State  has  contributed  to  it  liberally  and 
should  continue  to  do  so  when  necessary. 

The  law  of  Congress,  in  making  the  donation,  did  not  exclude  other 
branches  of  learning,  but  left  that  to  the  convenience  and  discretion  of  the 
State,  in  organizing  and  directing  the  operations  of  the  school.  The  State 
has  exercised  that  discretion,  by  providing  in  the  Constitution  of  1876,  that 
it  shall  be  “a  branch  of  the  University  for  the  instruction  in  agriculture,  the 
mechanic  arts,  and  the  natural  sciences  connected  therewith.”  Here  is  a 
specific  direction,  as  to  what  should  be  taught  in  that  institution,  and,  that  it 
was  so  intended  is  manifest  from  the  fact,  that  the  Constitution  made  it  only 
a  branch  of  the  University  of  Texas,  whose  general  objects  were  declared  to 
be  “  for  the  promotion  of  literature,  and  the  arts,  and  sciences,  including  an 
agricultural  and  mechanical  department,”  and  then  expressly  indicated  what 
learning  should  be  taught  in  that  branch  or  department  of  the  University. 
If  some  learned  member  of  the  Legislature  would  take  the  trouble  to  examine 
closely  the  curriculum,  or  course  of  study  of  the  agricultural  and  mechanical 
branch,  and  that  also  of  the  Normal  School,  and  compare  them  with  that  of 
the  academic  department  of  the  University,  he  might  well  conclude,  judging 
from  them,  that  the  Legislature  had  put  up,  or  rather  had  allowed  to  be  put 
up,  three  universities  instead  of  one,  for  the  general  collegiate  education  of 
the  youths  of  this  State.  This  is  not  referred  to  in  opposition  to  those  schools, 
but  rather  in  favor  of  them.  For  the  best  results  are  to  be  attained  in  those 
schools,  as  well  as  in  all  others,  by  their  being  confined  to  the  special  objects 
of  their  creation.  It  is  the  business,  as  well  as  the  duty  of  the  Legislature  to 
look  to  that  matter,  in  regard  to  all  of  the  schools  of  the  State  made  so  by 
the  Constitution. 


10 


FACULTY  ADDRESS. 


In  the  Constitution  of  1876  we  find  the  following  provisions:  “The  Legis¬ 
lature  shall,  as  soon  as  practicable,  establish,  organize,  and  provide  for  the 
maintenance,  support,  and  direction  of  a  university  of  the  first  class,”  etc. 
“In  order  to  enable  the  Legislature  to  perform  the  duties  set  forth  in  the 
foregoing  section,  it  is  hereby  declared,  that  all  lands  and  other  property 
heretofore  set  apart  and  appropriated  for  the  establishment  of  the  University 
of  Texas,  together  with  all  the  proceeds  of  sales  of  the  same  heretofore  made, 
or  hereafter  to  be  made,  and  all  grants,  donations,  and  appropriations  that 
may  hereafter  be  made  by  the  State  of  Texas,  or  from  any  other  source,  shall 
constitute  and  become  a  permanent  university  fund.  And  the  same  as  real¬ 
ized  and  received  into  the  Treasury  of  the  State,  together  with  such  sum  be¬ 
longing  to  the  fund  as  may  now  be  in  the  treasury,  shall  be  invested  in  bonds 
of  the  State  of  Texas,  if  the  same  can  be  obtained,  if  not,  then  in  United 
States  bonds,  and  the  interest  accruing  thereon  shall  be  subject  to  appropria¬ 
tion  by  the  Legislature  to  accomplish  the  purpose  declared  in  the  foregoing 
section.” 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  there  is  no  express  provision  requiring  the  Legis¬ 
lature  to  appropriate  money  collected  as  revenue  to  the  available  fund  to  be 
used  annually,  as  it  was  provided  for  the  support  of  the  public  free  schools. 
From  which,  as  well  as  from  other  considerations,  it  may  be  presumed,  that 
the  University  was  intended  to  be  supported  mainly  if  not  entirely  from  the 
accruing  proceeds  of  its  permanent  fund.  Upon  that,  there  has  been  some 
difference  of  opinion.  There  is  no  question,  however,  that  the  Legislature 
may  appropriate  any  amount  of  money  or  bonds  to  the  permanent  fund.  The 
Legislature  has  heretofore  both  loaned  and  appropriated  money  from  the  rev¬ 
enue  for  the  support  of  the  University  as  it  has  been  needed,  and  unless  some 
important  action  is  taken  to  increase  largely  its  permanent  fund,  that  course 
must  be  continued  for  the  annual  maintenance  of  the  University,  as  now  or¬ 
ganized,  for  an  indefinite  time  in  the  future.  A  very  general  view  of  the 
present  situation  will  illustrate  this.  As  shown  in  the  Regents’  Biennial  Re¬ 
port  of  December,  1888  (which  is  probably  not  very  different  from  the  report 
that  would  be  made  now),  the  annual  expenditure  for  the  academic  depart¬ 
ment  was  $44,525,  and  for  the  law  professors  in  connection  with  that  depart¬ 
ment,  $7000,  making  a  total  of  $51,525.  To  say  nothing  now  of  additional 
professorships  needed,  it  is  estimated  that  it  will  take  $75,000  to  erect  the 
east  wing  of  the  main  building  at  Austin.  The  agricultural  and  mechanical 
department  will  require  an  occasional  appropriation  for  its  enlargement,  as  it 
has  received  heretofore.  The  medical  department,  it  is  estimated,  will  re¬ 
quire  an  additional  amount  of  $75,000  for  building  and  outfit,  and  after  it  is 
put  in  operation,  it  will  require  annually  $25,000  for  running  expenses  to 
maintain  it.  It  was  evidently  contemplated,  that  at  some  time  it  would  be 
deemed  practicable  to  establish  a  branch  for  the  instruction  of  the  colored 
youths,  which  would  have  to  be  done  out  of  the  available  fund  of  the  Uni¬ 
versity  entirely,  as  required  by  the  Constitution.  Leaving  out  of  view  for  the 
present  the  fund  devoted  to  the  agricultural  and  mechanical  branch,  and  the 
money  paid  by  the  students  of  the  academic  and  law  departments  of  the  main 
University,  the  annual  income  from  bonds,  land  notes,  and  leases  was  re¬ 
ported  to  be  only  $41,589.39,  which  is  not  enough  to  maintain  the  academic 
department  of  the  University  alone,  as  now  organized.  This  shows  that  we 
have  arrived  at  a  crisis,  presenting  practically  three  alternatives,  which  are, 
first,  to  go  on  asking  favors  from  the  Legislature  from  year  to  year  to  main¬ 
tain  a  precarious  existence;  second,  to  unload,  by  suspending  for  the  present 
every  department,  except  the  academic  department  of  the  main  University, 
and  the  agricultural  and  mechanical  branch,  and  by  reducing  their  expendi¬ 
ture  to  the  regular  income,  and  await  the  accumulation  of  sufficient  funds  to 


FACULTY  ADDRESS. 


11 


establish  the  other  necessary  departments;  third,  to  devise  the  means  of  in¬ 
creasing  the  permanent  fund  sufficiently  to  place  all  of  the  departments  in 
good  working  order  upon  the  annual  income. 

The  last  alternative  is  that  which  the  best  interest  of  the  country  demands. 
But  the  question  is,  how  shall  that  be  accomplished?  The  lands  belonging 
to  the  fund  is  the  source  from  which  an  increase  of  it  must  be  realized.  It 
is  believed,  that  it  is  better  to  depend  upon  the  liberality  and  justice  of  the 
Legislature  in  regard  to  the  lands  still  owned,  than  to  claim  as  debts  due  the 
fund  the  amount  of  property  heretofore  appropriated  to  it,  that  has  been  di¬ 
verted  from  it  to  other  purposes. 

The  remaining  unsold  portion  of  the  original  fifty  leagues  of  land  are  situ¬ 
ated  in  counties  that  are  settled  up,  and  can  be  readily  utilized  by  lease  or  by 
sale.  Of  the  2,000,000  acres,  up  to  this  date  7360  acres  have  been  sold, 
141,557  acres  have  been  leased,  leaving  undisposed  of  1,858,083  acres  of 
land.  They  have  been  classified  as  dry  grazing  lands,  and  valued  at  $2  per 
acre.  If  these  lands  could  be  sold  at  an  average  of  even  one  dollar  per  acre, 
)  or  leased  at  three  cents  per  acre,  it  would  increase  the  available  fund  to  be 
annually  expended  to  $100,000  or  more,  which  would  place  the  University 
upon  a  more  solid  foundation  for  its  future  prosperity.  The  Commissioner 
of  the  General  Land  Office  reports,  as  a  reason  for  their  not  having  been  dis¬ 
posed  of,  or  leased,  that  they  “are  devoid  of  permanent  water,  and  too  distant 
from  water  to  be  utilized,”  and  that  “they  are  also  for  the  most  part  remote 
from  population  and  unoccupied.”  He  might  well  have  added,  that  they  are 
devoid  of  water  and  unoccupied,  because  they  are  located  in  a  dry  country, 
that  has  been  a  dry  country  ever  since  the  Spaniards  first  traversed  it,  two 
hundred  years  ago  or  more,  and  will  continue  to  be  a  dry  country  until  the 
water  is  brought  to  the  surface  by  digging  or  boring  wells.  Irrigation  at 
best  only  makes  gardens,  and  patches,  and  small  fields,  and  not  great  farms, 
such  as  are  produced  by  abu>  dant  rainfall;  and  therefore,  it  must  be  utilized 
mainly  as  a  stock  country.  If  a  disinterested  practical  stockman  was  con¬ 
sulted  as  to  the  means  of  utilizing  those  lands,  he  would  say,  that  there  must 
be  sufficient  quantity  of  land  leased,  for  such  a  length  of  time,  at  such  a  rate, 
or  sold  on  such  terms  as  would  justify  the  employment  of  enough  capital  to 
fence  it,  get  water,  and  make  other  improvements,  necessary  for  a  permanent 
stock  ranch.  If  those  lands  are  to  be  used  singly  for  the  benefit  of  the  Uni- 
niversity,  to  whose  fund  they  belong,  it  must  be  done  in  that  way. 

There  is  an  impression  abroad  that  the  rain  belt  is  moving  westward,  and 
that  after  a  while  crops  can  be  raised  there,  as  they  can  be  in  the  settled 
portions  of  Texas.  Presumably  on  that  theory,  the  policy  has  been  adopted, 
apparently,  of  reserving  those  lands  for  farmers,  with  small,  very  small  stocks. 
The  limit  fixed  for  the  disposition  of  those  lands  by  sale  to  permanent  settlers 
on  the  lands  only,  four  sections,  and  by  lease  to  one  person  for  six,  and  for 
ten  years.  (Act  of  April,  1889.)  This  policy  of  holding  up  the  lands  is 
doubtless  prompted  by  the  idea,  that  they  will  be  more  profitable  to  the  Uni¬ 
versity  in  the  future.  Still  they  are  used  to  have  the  lands  settled,  which  is 
postponing  perhaps  indefinitely  any  considerable  interest  in  them  to  the  Uni¬ 
versity,  for  which  they  were  set  apart.  There  is  a  clause  in  the  Constitution 
(Art.  8,  sec.  7)  providing  that  “the  Legislature  shall  not  have  the  power  to 
borrow  or  in  any  manner  to  divert  from  its  purposes  any  special  fund,  that 
may  or  oughf  to  come  in  the  treasury.” 

This  provision,  whether  applicable  directly  or  not,  would  indicate  the  prin¬ 
ciple  as  a  rule,  that  these  lands  should  be  disposed  of  in  the  way  that  would 
best  promote  the  interest  of  the  University,  irrespective  of  any  other  use  that 
they  might  be  made  to  subserve.  If,  however,  the  Legislature  should  prefer 
to  hold  the  lands  up  to  get  farm  settlers  on  them  it  would  be  equitable  to  ad- 


12 


FACULTY  ADDRESS. 


vance  to  the  University  permanent  fund  two  millions  or  more  in  4  or  5  per 
cent  bonds,  and  refund  the  amount  by  the  sale  or  by  the  lease  of  the  lands, 
as  they  might  be  in  demand  under  its  policy.  That  would  enable  the  Uni¬ 
versity  to  be  carried  on  without  a  continual  application  to  the  Legislature  to 
meet  the  annual  expenditures.  Whatever  course  may  be  pursued,  it  is  to  be 
hoped  that  it  will  give  a  surety  for  the  permanent  maintenance  of  the  institu¬ 
tion  in  all  of  its  branches  and  departments. 

There  are  some  subjects  applicable  to  all  of  the  schools  of  the  State,  of  a 
general .  nature,  that  are  worthy  of  consideration.  There  is  a  growing  ten¬ 
dency  to  separate  the  schools  from  the  public  influence,  and  to  set  them  apart 
as  self-controlling  institutions  in  the  country.  This  may  have  its  advantages, 
but  it  is  having  disadvantages.  It  is  inducing  the  people  to  feel  that  the 
State  is  solely  responsible  for  the  education  of  their  children,  and  that  they 
are  thereby  relieved  from  active  concern  in  regard  to  it.  If  there  were  pub¬ 
lic  oral  examinations  in  every  school  in  the  State,  to  which  the  patrons  and 
others  were  invited,  and  expected  to  attend,  it  would  tend  to  identify  the 
people  with  them  as  their  schools,  and  excite  a  deeper  interest  in  them,  much 
to  their  improvement.  And  the  more  the  members  of  the  Legislature  can 
be  induced  to  feel  their  responsibility  in  the  proper  inspection  and  govern¬ 
ment  of  all  of  the  schools,  the  greater  will  be  the  encouragement  extended  to 
them  by  the  government  of  the  State. 

There  is  another  subject  of  public  interest,  that  will  sooner  or  later  present 
itself  for  the  serious  consideration  of  the  government  of  Texas,  and  that  is 
the  furnishing  the  people  with  school  books  for  all  the  schools,  or  at  least  for 
most  of  them.  Already  we  are  informed  that  combinations  have  been  made 
by  book  publishers.  The  consequence  will  be,  that  they  will  get  their  own 
prices  for  them  without  competition.  Intelligent  printers  affirm,  that  such 
books  as  those  that  are  now  used  in  the  schools,  can  be  furnished  by  the  State 
at  less  than  half  the  price  that  is  paid  for  them.  When  it  is  considered,  that 
there  are  at  least  10,000  country  and  city  schools  in  the  State,  and  a  schol¬ 
astic  population  (in  December,  1888)  of  over  500,000,  the  saving  to  the 
people  would  certainly  be  an  important  object.  The  State  has  already  tried 
the  experiment  of  having  the  laws  and  the  decisions  of  our  high  courts  of 
last  resort  published,  and  they  are  now  furnished  to  those  who  want  them  at 
half  the  price  formerly  paid  for  them.  Surely,  we  have  educators  competent 
to  make  school  books,  if  they  were  properly  paid  for  it.  There  are  other 
considerations,  beside  that  of  expense,  too  obvious  to  require  express  men¬ 
tion,  why  Texas  parents  would,  and  should  prefer  for  their  children  to  be 
taught  in  Texas  made  school  books. 

In  conclusion,  whatever  views  have  been  here  presented  in  regard  to  the 
support,  management,  and  teaching  in  any  and  all  of  the  schools  of  the  State, 
should  be  taken  as  suggestive  only,  in  order  to  add  my  mite  of  counsel  for 
their  improvement,  if  they  or  any  of  them  should  meet  with  the  approbation 
of  those  who  have  influence  and  control  upon  the  subject.  They  are  not 
offered  in  the  spirit  of  underrating  what  has  been  done  for  the  schools, — far 
from  it.  For  the  grand  progress  of  the  cause  of  education,  during  the  ten  or 
twelve  years  past  in  Texas,  marks  a  new  era  in  its  history,  and  gives  promise 
in  the  future  of  placing  it  on  an  equality  with  the  most  favored  States,  in  the 
educational  advantages  of  its  people. 


UNIVERSITY  ADDRESS. 

JUNE  17,  1890. 


HON.  J.  H.  McLEARY. 


Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Board  of  Regents,  Mr.  Chairman  and  Members  of  the 

Faculty,  Students  of  the  University,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

In  response  to  the  flattering  invitation  so  kindly  extended  to  me  to  address 
you  on  this  occasion  but  one  answer  could  possibly  be  made.  However  much 
I  may  regret  that  the  choice  did  not  fall  on  some  one  more  capable  of  inter¬ 
esting  or  instructing  ycu,  the  deep  solicitude  which  I  feel  for  the  welfare  of 
this  institution,  my  zeal  in  the  cause  of  public  education,  and  my  sense  of 
duty  to  the  State  would  not  permit  me  to  decline.  So  I  have  cast  aside  all 
matters  of  business,  and  forsaken  for  the  time  the  dull  round  of  professional 
engagements,  and  “  like  the  working  bee  in  blossom  dust,  blanched  with  the 
mill”  of  the  workday  world,  1  turn  aside  to  visit  these  academic  groves,  where 
learning  finds  her  chosen  seat,  and  wisdom  walks  abroad  to  bless  her  votaries. 
And  coming  from  the  surging  throng  of  the  most  populous  city  in  Texas, 
surrounded  day  after  day  by  the  crush  of  crowds  intent  on  seeking  for  gold 
or  pleasure,  it  may  be  in  some  degree  excusable  in  me  to  have  selected  for 
my  subject  on  this  occasion  an  exceedingly  practical  theme.  But  for  all  that, 
my  dear  young  ladies  and  gentlemen,  who  have  been  in  attendance  here  in 
these  classic  halls  as  students,  you  have  doubtless,  each  and  every  one,  thought 
much  upon  the  subject  on  which  I  propose  very  briefly  to  address  you. 

When  you  have  trimmed  the  famous  and  well  worn  midnight  lamp,  or 
wearily  watched  the  flickering  gas  jet  struggling  for  supremacy  with  the 
dawning  day,  meanwhile  immersed  in  the  mysteries  of  mathematics,  or  en¬ 
gaged  in  digging  Greek  roots  from  the  battlefields  of  the  Peloponnesian  war, 
or  in  construing  the  melodious  measures  of  Horace  into  homely  prose,  how 
often  have  you  asked  yourself  or  your  chum,  “What  is  the  use  of  all  this?” 

It  is  precisely  this  question  which  I  shall  try  to  answer,  while  discussing,  in 
my  homely  style,  the  subject  chosen  for  my  remarks  to-day,  which  may  be 
called 


THE  UTILITY  OF  UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION. 

In  treating  this  question  it  is  but  proper  that  we  should  give  to  the  term 
education  its  widest  and  deepest  signification,  such  as  is  indicated  by  its  ety¬ 
mology,  and  regard  it  as  almost  synonymous  with  discipline  rather  than  in- 
instruction.  Nor  need  we  confine  the  meaning  of  the  word  education  to 
leading  forth  the  mind  alone,  but  apply  it  as  well  to  that  moral  and  physical 
discipline  which  is  absolutely  necessary  to  constitute  a  perfect  man  or  woman. 
Our  triple  human  nature  requires  this  three-fold  training;  and  the  youth 
of  either  sex  who  lacks  this  diverse  discipline  can  never  approximate  that 
high  standard  of  excellence,  which  should  be  the  exalted  aim  of  every  one 
worthy  to  be  enrolled  as  a  student  of  this  University. 


14 


UNIVERSITY  ADDRESS. 


Instruction  may  store  the  memory  with  the  most  recondite  facts,  and  may 
fill  the  soul  with  the  sublimest  truths,  but  it  is  discipline  alone  which  can  call 
forth  the  highest  faculties  of  the  mind  and  heart,  and  improve  and  perfect 
them  by  exercise,  until  they  are  capable  of  sustaining  the  greatest  and  most 
prolonged  activity.  It  is  such  training  that  produces  that  grand  creation  of 
whom  the  Bard  of  Avon  spoke,  when  he  describes  the  King  of  Denmark  as 
having 

“  A  combination  and  a  form  indeed, 

Where  every  god  did  seem  to  set  his  seal. 

To  give  the  world  assurance  of  a  man.” 

And  such  an  image  was  in  the  eye  of  the  Boston  poet  when  he  wrote  of 
“Earth's  noblest  thing,  a  woman  perfected.” 

Knowledge  is  chiefly  useful  as  a  means  of  culture,  and  facts  fill  their  noblest 
office  when  used  as  implements  wherewith  to  develop,  exercise,  and  perfect 
the  intellectual  faculties 

The  purpose  of  education  is  not  to  store  the  mind  like  a  vault  with  the 
golden  treasures  of  truth  or  the  sparkling  gems  of  wisdom,  but  to  perfect 
and  brighten  by  culture,  exercise,  and  discipline  that  ray  of  the  supreme  in¬ 
telligence,  that  atom  of  the  divine  essence,  which  we  presume  to  call  the  intel¬ 
lect  or  soul  of  man.  When  the  wings  of  our  immortality  are  stretched  forth 
towards  heaven  how  can  we  fetter  them  with  the  sordid  cares  of  earth  and 
chain  down  the  eagle  which  fain  would  seek  the  sun?  Such  of  us  as  have 
a  proper  sense  of  the  position  which  God  has  assigned  to  the  human  race  in 
the  marvelous  scheme  of  the  universe,  cannot  fail  to  appreciate  the  supreme 
importance  of  thorough  intellectual  culture  and  discipline.  The  mind  is  not 
a  trap  to  catch  facts  and  figures  found  running  at  large  in  books  or  escaping 
from  the  lips  of  learned  men  in  lectures,  but  it  is  a  bow,  a  rifle,  a  needle  gun. 
or  a  gigantic  cannon  with  which  to  accomplish  the  greatest  miracles  which 
hunters  or  warriors  ever  yet  have  dreamed  of;  or  rather  it  is  a  harp  or  an 
organ,  from  which,  when  fully  brought  to  perfection  by  use  and  training, 
the  fingers  of  Diety  shall  draw  forth  music  worthy  to  echo  and  reverberate 
throughout  the  universe,  and  to  accompany  the  song  which  the  morning  stars 
sang  together  at  creation’s  dawn. 

Let  us  then  keep  clearly  m  view  the  distinction  between  wisdom  and  phil¬ 
osophy,  information  and  culture,  knowledge  and  education,  and  the  relative 
importance  of  each  to  the  other.  A  great  French  metaphysician,  Malebranche, 
has  illustrated  the  superior  value  of  mental  exercise  to  mere  learning  by  say¬ 
ing  :  “If  I  held  truth  captive  in  my  hand,  I  should  open  my  hand  and  let  it 
fly,  in  order  that  I  might  again  pursue  and  capture  it.” 

With  some  such  ideas  as  these  of  what  education  is  or  should  be,  we  can 
pass  on  to  consider  the  function  of  the  university  in  the  great  plan  of  a  gen¬ 
eral  system  of  public  education. 

Although  the  word  university,  in  its  derivation,  is  synonomous,  or  nearly 
so,  with  the  words  college  and  corporation,  yet,  in  drifting  down  the  tide  of 
time,  it  has  seemed  to  catch  a  meaning  from  its  kindred  word  universe;  and 
there  has  been  included  within  the  scope  of  the  university  the  most  varied 
discipline,  with  every  means  and  source  of  liberal  knowledge  and  the  deepest 
and  broadest  mines  of  learning.  For  more  than  seven  centuries  it  has  been 
the  policy  of  civilized  governments  to  encourage  universities  and  thereby  to 
consolidate  in  a  compact  and  aggressive  form  all  human  knowledge.  For 
many  generations,  and  indeed  until  the  present  century,  an  institution  of 
learning  was  deemed  a  university  which  included  the  four  faculties  of  law, 
medicine,  theology,  and  the  arts  and  sciences.  At  the  present  day,  however, 


UNIVERSITY  ADDRESS. 


15 


a  first  class  university,  besides  all  these,  includes  schools  for  teaching  the 
several  modern  languages,  chemistry,  physics,  geology,  astronomy,  and  his¬ 
tory,  and  is  often  enlarged  to  embrace  also  instruction  in  agriculture  and 
mechanism,  as  well  as  mining,  architecture,  and  the  various  branches  of  en¬ 
gineering,  and  even  to  include  stenography  and  bookkeeping  within  its  com¬ 
prehensive  grasp.  Such  is  the  enlarged  view  of  university  education  at  the 
present  day.  While  in  its  origin  the  university  was  little  more  than  an  or¬ 
dinary  college  with  an  enlarged  curriculum,  as  now  organized  the  several 
colleges,  schools,  halls,  or  departments  are  united  in  one  confederated  body 
for  educational  purposes,  retaining  their  separate  jurisdiction  for  local  man¬ 
agement,  but  surrendering  for  the  general  welfare  all  the  powers  necessary 
for  the  more  perfect  and  harmonious  government  of  the  whole;  in  this  re¬ 
spect  bearing  a  striking  similarity  to  our  complex  political  system  of  the  sev¬ 
eral  States  in  the  Federal  Union.  A  succession  of  careful  experiments, 
reaching  over  several  centuries  and  many  generations  of  profound  scholars, 
has  confirmed  the  wisdom  of  the  federal  plan  for  the  union  of  many  educa¬ 
tional  forces  under  one  directory;  and  the  results  have  proven  that  such 
organized  effort  has  produced,  as  a  rule,  a  higher  order  of  mental  discipline 
and  development  than  when  the  same  forces  have  worked  without  concert  or 
co-operation.  When  all  the  forces  of  intellectual  expansion  are  operating 
under  the  same  influence  and  are  concentrated  towards  a  common  point, 
when  all  the  lights  of  scientific  research  are  directed  to  the  same  focus,  more 
splendid  results  have  been  achieved  than  when  the  same  powers  are  acting  in 
widely  separated  fields  of  labor  with  each  lens  pointed  in  a  different  direc¬ 
tion.  In  education,  as  in  politics  and  other  human  enterprises,  “in  union 
there  is  strength.”  And  right  here,  gentlemen  of  the  Faculty,  pardon  me  if 
I  pause  to  declare  my  approval  of  what  is  known  as  the  elective  system,  and 
to  hail  with  delight  the  dawning  of  the  day  which  has  released  our  boys  and 
girls  from  the  ancient  tread-mill  of  the  college  curriculum.  Human  knowl¬ 
edge  has  reached  too  wide  a  range,  and  the  methods  of  mental  discipline  have 
become  far  too  various  to  permit  even  the  elements  of  a  liberal  education  to 
be  compressed  into  the  four  years  course  of  an  old  time  college. 

The  day  is  at  hand  when  a  university  of  the  first  class,  such  as  is  demanded 
by  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  Texas,  must  be  a  federation  of  colleges  or 
schools,  each  devoted  to  some  peculiar  method  of  mental  discipline,  some 
special  department  of  learning,  or  some  technical  or  professional  art  or  science. 
Something  like  this  seems  to  me  to  be  the  true  idea  of  a  great  university. 
Let  the  union  be  strong  enough  to  bind  the  several  parts  together  in  one 
common  purpose  and  under  a  single  management,  but  let  the  schools  or  col¬ 
leges  each  pursue  its  own  methods  and  strive  in  its  own  way  to  accomplish 
its  special  purpose.  Thus  might  they  be 

“Distinct  as  the  billows, 

Yet  one  as  the  sea. 

The  course  of  study  might  be  left  entirely  elective,  and  yet,  for  the  pur- 
*  pose  of  conferring  degrees  and  other  honors,  the  several  schools  could  be  so 
grouped  as  to  encourage  the  student  in  pursuing  such  studies  as  would  be 
homogeneous,  and  at  the  same  time  fit  him  or  her  for  the  walk  of  life  marked 
out  for  each  of  them.  Prior  to  the  invention  of  the  printing  press  the  uni¬ 
versities  of  Europe  were  the  great  store  houses  of  learning,  the  grand  treas¬ 
ure  vaults  of  wisdom,  where  every  people  garnered  up  its  wealth  of  literature 
and  science,  and  disseminated  it  to  a  favored  few  who  were  fortunate  enough 
to  be  admitted  into  the  charmed  circle  of  the  scholastic  guild.  Since  the 
genius  of  Gutenberg  lias  revolutionized  the  republic  of  letters,  such  an  office 
is  confided  to  our  great  public  libraries,  and  to  the  periodical  prints  which 


16 


UNIVERSITY  ADDRESS. 


flood  the  reading  world  with  monthly,  weekly,  and  daily  supplies  of  miscel¬ 
laneous  information.  In  this  iron  age  the  university  should  be  the  great 
intellectual  gymnasium  where  the  best  and  brightest  minds  in  every  country 
are  congregated  and  trained  and  disciplined  in  every  faculty,  until  each  has  at¬ 
tained  its  highest  capacity  of  intellectual  vigor.  The  university  is  no  longer  a 
fountain  from  which  to  quaff  the  Pierian  draught  of  learning,  but  an  arena  in 
which  the  athlete  wrestles,  hurls  the  discus  or  the  javelin,  leaps  or  runs  the 
race,  or  contends  in  the  grand  pentathlon,  where  success  gives  to  the  strongest 
and  most  active  mind  the  olive  crown  of  victory. 

But  while  all  this  attention  should  be  bestowed  by  the  University  on  the 
mental  powers,  the  moral  nature  should,  by  no  means,  be  neglected.  Lucifer 
was  the  peer  of  any  other  archangel  in  mere  force  of  intellect.  The  great 
ideas  of  truth,  honor,  right,  and  justice  should  be  thoroughly  inculcated  into 
the  youthful  human  breast.  The  fundamental  principles  or  moral  philosophy 
taught  by  Socrates.  Seneca,  Solomon,  Moses,  and  Confucius,  and  by  the 
greatest  of  all  the  prophets  who  ever  enlightened  the  world  with  their  wis¬ 
dom,  the  humble  Nazerene,  should  be  studied  on  the  lines  of  the  most  liberal 
and  searching  investigation.  Students  should  be  taught  what  is  right,  honest, 
and  just,  and  to  pursue  and  to  practice  virtue  for  its  own  sake,  and  without 
the  fear  of  punishment  or  the  hope  of  reward. 

And  moreover  it  seems  to  me  indispensable  that  a  large  gymnasium,  de¬ 
voted  to  athletic  sports  and  physical  exercise,  and  including  a  course  for  boat 
racing  on  the  beautiful  waters  of  the  Colorado,  should  be  carried  on  under 
the  direction  of  the  officers  of  the  University;  and  that  the  physical  powers 
of  the  young  men  and  women  who  seek  these  halls  as  students  should  be 
developed  and  trained,  to  keep  pace  with  the  improvement  of  their  mental 
and  moral  faculties. 

“Sana  mens  in  corpore  sano,”  is  an  old  maxim  worthy  to  be  written  in 
letters  of  gold  on  the  gateway  of  every  institution  of  learning  throughout 
the  world,  reminding  us  constantly  of  the  tribute  which  mind  must  eve?  in 
this  world  pay  to  matter. 

Then  defining  university  education  as  the  highest  discipline,  development, 
and  culture  of  the  moral,  mental,  and  physical  powers  of  the  human  creature, 
we  are  prepared  to  discuss,  with  a  proper  sense  of  its  importance,  the  practi¬ 
cal  benefits  to  be  derived  from  such  education,  both  to  the  student  himself 
and  to  the  State  of  which  he  is  a  citizen. 

Perhaps  it  would  be  best  to  take  up  these  branches  of  the  subject  in  their 
inverse  order,  and  consider  the  last  named  first. 

The  benefits  which  the  student  himself  derives  from  education  may  be 
classed  as  absolute,  while  those  which  the  State  receives  may  be  considered 
as  relative.  It  is  not  the  purpose  of  the  present  discussion  to  draw  any  dis¬ 
tinction  as  to  the  comparative  importance  of  the  absolute  and  the  relative 
utility  of  higher  education;  yet  as  long  as  man  is  a  selfish  being,  so  consti¬ 
tuted  by  nature  for  the  preservation  and  improvement  of  the  species,  we  can 
not  fail  to  regard  the  former  as  of  far  more  immediate  concern  to  the  students 
of  any  university,  no  matter  how  magnanimous  or  patriotic  they  may  be. 

In  this  age  of  steel  and  electricity,  this  peculiarly  practical  age,  there  seems 
to  be  an  idea  abroad  that  the  State  has  no  need  of  highly  educated  men,  much 
less  of  educated  women.  Even  among  the  trustees  and  regents  of  colleges 
and  universities  we  find  men  agreeing  with  the  sentiment  of  Fouquier-Tin- 
ville,  the  notorious  purveyor  of  the  guillotine,  “La  Kepublique  n’a  pas  besoin 
de  savants.”  Sometimes  men  like  this  get  into  the  Texas  Legislature  and 
immediately  begin  to  court  popularity  among  the  ignorant  by  an  attack  upon 
the  University.  To  such  we  might  point  out  the  source  of  England’s  great¬ 
ness,  in  the  culture  which  finds  its  home  in  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  and  to 


UNIVERSITY  ADDRESS. 


17 


the  glorious  history  of  France,  which  has  ever  fostered  its  universities  since 
the  days  of  Philip  Augustus,  who  forever  freed  the  University  of  Paris  from 
political  control,  and  patronized  the  University  of  Montpelier,  which  has  re¬ 
cently  celebrated  its  seven  hundredth  anniversary.  And  if  this  higher  culture 
is  of  such  incalculable  benefit  in  the  old  countries  of  Europe,  how  much  more 
important  is  it  here  on  this  new  continent,  where  liberty  has  its  permanent 
abiding  place.  In  every  free  state  it  is  the  highly  educated  who  are  the  most 
watchful  guardians  of  the  people’s  rights.  From  the  watch  towers  of  the 
universities  are  sounded  the  alarm  bells  to  warn  the  people  of  the  encroach¬ 
ments  of  despotic  power.  John  Hampden,  the  intrepid  defender  of  English 
liberty,  was  an  Oxford  scholar,  and  doubtless  there  imbibed  the  patriotic 
principles  for  which  he,  too  soon  for  England’s  greatness,  offered  up  his  life 
on  the  battlefield.  And  even  now  in  Spain,  the  most  celebrated  scholar  and 
orator  of  that  country,  the  great  Castelar,  is  the  most  unflinching  patriot,  and 
publicly  in  the  Cortes,  under  the  very  shadow  of  the  throne,  avows  himself 
a  republican  Every  student  in  every  land  should  wish  him  success  in  found¬ 
ing  a  Spanish  republic.  George  Washington  and  Thomas  Jefferson  both 
founded  and  fostered,  in  their  native  State  of  Virginia,  institutions  of  learn¬ 
ing  intended  to  promote  the  highest  education;  and  at  this  day  Washington 
and  Lee  University  and  the  University  of  Virginia  are  among  the  grandest 
monuments  ever  erected  to  their  genius  and  their  patriotism. 

Just  as  long  as  professional  men,  physicians,  lawyers,  architects,  civil  en¬ 
gineers,  teachers,  and  the  like  are  needed  in  a  State,  it  is  certainly  for  the 
public  good  that  we  should  have  the  very  best.  Is  not  the  public  health  of 
the  first  importance,  and  who  would  be  so  bold  as  to  contend  that  the  State 
should  abolish  all  quarantine  laws,  and  leave  us  a  prey  to  every  form  of  epi¬ 
demic  disease.  It  is  surely  a  matter  of  grave  public  concern  that  the  laws 
should  be  wisely  made,  and  promptly  and  justly  administered.  Railroad 
bridges  should  not  be  permitted  to  be  so  constructed  as  to  fall  into  the  rivers, 
and  to  deal  out  death  alike  to  the  trusting  trainmen  and  the  unfortunate 
traveler.  In  building  houses,  that  oldest  of  arts,  the  public  should  be  pro¬ 
tected  alike  against  the  dishonesty  of  the  shoddy  contractor  and  the  parsi¬ 
mony  of  the  grasping  landlord,  and  all  our  people  are  concerned  in  having 
for  themselves  the  most  healthful,  comfortable,  and  tasteful  dwellings.  And 
what  would  be  the  grade  and  condition  of  the  public  common  schools,  where 
the  great  masses  of  the  children  of  Texas  are  educated,  without  teachers 
qualified  to  impart  instruction  and  “form  the  common  mind.”  In  regard  to 
the  vocation  of  a  teacher  it  was  said  by  the  great  teacher  himself:  “If  the 
blind  lead  the  blind  both  shall  fall  into  the  ditch.” 

Scarcely  a  man  of  any  intelligence  can  be  found  at  the  present  day  who 
would  oppose  the  general  system  of  public  education  provided  for  by  our 
Constitution.  It  is  a  recognized  principle  in  political  economy,  which  has 
taken  the  deepest  root  in  the  public  mind  in  all  free  countries,  that  it  is  the 
bounden  duty  of  the  State  to  educate  the  children  who  are  to  become  its 
citizens,  the  sovereigns  who  are  to  control  its  destinies.  Such  being  the  case, 
university  education  is  a  necessity.  For  common  public  education  can  not 
exist  without  it.  This  University  forms  the  chief  foundation  stone  in  the 
great  educational  edifice  founded  by  our  fathers  and  builded  by  their  sons 
in  this  the  greatest  of  the  United  States.  I  can  not  say  that  I  am  in  favor 
of  giving  every  young  man  and  woman  in  the  State  a  university  education — 
it  would  not  be  practicable  even  if  it  were  beneficial;  but  I  am  in  favor  of 
encouraging  every  one  who  has  a  mind  sufficiently  bright  and  active  to  appre¬ 
ciate  the  advantages  for  culture  which  are  afforded  here,  to  enter  these  halls 
as  students  and  improve  their  faculties  to  the  fullest  extent.  After  awhile, 
when  the  general  system  of  public  education  in  Texas  is  better  organized  and 


18 


UNIVERSITY  ADDRESS. 


perfected,  I  would  open  the  doors  of  the  University  to  those  pupils,  and  those 
only,  who  had  completed  with  distinction  a  prescribed  course  in  the  public 
schools  and  in  some  one  of  the  high  schools  or  colleges  of  the  State,  and  thus 
select  the  very  best  material  for  students,  in  order  that  the  labors  of  our 
learned  professors,  chosen  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  might  be  productive 
of  the  very  best  results. 

If  this  University  is  to  be  what  the  fathers  of  the  Republic  designed  it  to 
be,  no  expense  should  be  spared  to  secure  for  every  chair  the  ablest  instructor 
who  can  anywhere  be  found,  eminent  for  his  special  merit  in  the  department 
over  which  he  is  called  to  preside.  The  inadequate  salaries  fixed  by  time¬ 
serving  politicians  for  the  highest  offices  of  the  State  should  not  be  regarded 
as  a  limit  beyond  which  the  Regents  could  not  pass  in  fixing  the  compensa¬ 
tion  of  the  learned  men  who  now  do  and  are  hereafter  to  adorn  this  institu¬ 
tion  with  their  wisdom.  The  past  history,  the  present  greatness,  and  the 
future  grandeur  of  Texas  all  demand  that  this  University  shall  be  made  the 
equal  of  the  very  best  institutions  on  either  continent.  Without  disparagement 
to  Yale  or  Harvard,  Oxford  or  Cambridge,  Leipsic  or  Montpelier,  Texas 
should  make  our  own  University,  in  the  present  generation,  “facile  princeps.” 

Hoping  that  no  one  who  reflects  upon  the  matter  can  very  long  have  a 
doubt  remaining  in  regard  to  the  benefit  which  the  State  at  large  derives 
from  the  presence  among  her  citizens  of  a  body  of  men  of  superior  culture, 
of  the  highest  mental  attainments,  such  as  can  be  found  only  among  the 
alumni  of  a  university  of  the  first  class,  let  us  see  what  are  the  absolute 
advantages,  the  practical  benefits,  to  accrue  to  the  student  himself,  who  gives 
his  days  to  unremitting  toil  and  his  nights  to  ceaseless  vigils  in  striving  for 
the  highest  discipline  and  the  deepest  culture.  But  let  me  premise  that  in 
my  view  the  true  object  of  life  and  labor  is  not  the  piling  up  of  dollars  like 
the  stones  in  the  pyramid  of  Cheops,  but  it  is  the  attainment  of  happiness  for 
ourselves  and  those  by  whom  we  are  surrounded.  And  we  would  do  well  to 
learn,  or  to  remember,  that  happiness  comes  from  within  to  a  much  greater 
degree  than  from  without.  Man  has  within  himself  the  roots  of  virtue  and 
philosophy,  which,  when  properly  cultivated  and  developed,  must  yield  the 
fruits  and  flowers  of  happiness. 

The  reason,  and  in  my  opinion  the  only  reason,  we  can  never  hope  to  attain 
complete  happiness  in  this  world,  is  because  in  the  constitution  of  human  na¬ 
ture  we  can  never  reach  but  only  approximate  perfection.  If  the  mental, 
moral,  and  physical  nature  of  any  person  could  be  cultivated  and  developed 
up  to  the  standard  of  absolute  perfection,  that  person  would  be  perfectly 
happy. 

“  Man  never  is,  but  always  to  be  blest.” 

But  why  should  we  nOt  by  higher  education,  by  severer  discipline,  by 
deeper  culture,  approximate  the  standard  which  our  Creator  has  implanted 
in  our  consciousness,  and  thus  approach  as  nearly  as  possible  the  unattainable? 
This  is  the  proper  and  legitimate  aim  of  all  education,  and  especially  of  uni¬ 
versity  education.  If  we  should  seek  for  a  practical  example  of  the  great 
truth  which  I  have  been  attempting  to  demonstrate,  who  can  doubt  that 
Emerson  was  happier  than  V anderbilt,  or  Socrates  than  Alexander.  But 
should  we  cast  aside  the  subjective  benefits  of  higher  education,  and  only 
consider  the  objective  results,  what  do  we  find  them  to  be  ?  If  mere  money 
getting  should  be  regarded  as  the  great  aim  of  life,  and  the  accumulation 
rather  than  the  distribution  of  wealth  the  true  purpose  of  all  studies  in  po¬ 
litical  economy,  we  can  still  find  many  advantages  in  higher  education. 
To  succeed,  with  the  competition  to  be  met  with  in  every  field  of  labor,  in 
every  contest  of  life,  we  must  be  provided  with  implements  of  the  latest  pat- 


UNIVERSITY  ADDRESS. 


19 


tern,  with  the  best  of  arms  and  ammunition.  The  soldier  armed  with  the 
long  range  gun  (as  some  of  us,  Mr.  Governor,  learned  to  our  cost  in  1863), 
can  begin  to  pick  oh  his  adversaries  for  a  quarter  of  a  mile  before  he  comes 
within  shooting  distance  of  his  enemy’s  guns.  The  repeating  rifle  multiplied 
the  troops  in  whose  hands  they  were  held,  during  our  late  civil  war,  by  at 
least  seventeen. 

Stubborn  courage,  exalted  patriotism,  heroic  endurance,  could  resist  for  a 
long  time,  but  not  overcome  such  tremendous  odds.  So  in  the  great  bivouac 
of  life.  The  hero  armed  cap-a-pie,  with  all  the  advantages  of  a  thorough 
university  education,  takes  his  self-made  antagonist  at  long  range,  with  a  re¬ 
peating  rifle  of  the  latest  improved  pattern,  and  victory  is  only  a  question  of 
distance  and  bullets.  This  is  true  of  every  occupation,  the  law  as  well  as 
surgery,  architecture  as  well  as  agriculture,  commerce  as  well  as  manufactur¬ 
ing.  The  man  or  woman  with  the  best  disciplined  mind  with  the  best  filled 
magazine  of  facts  and  figures,  must  prevail  whenever  two  or  more  are 
brought  into  active  competition.  And  in  this,  the  last  decade  of  the  nine¬ 
teenth  century,  when  our  great  State  has  her  three  millions  of  people,  and 
her  half  dozen  cities  of  more  than  25,000  population  each,  competition  is 
closer,  more  rigorous,  and  exacting  than  it  has  ever  been  before,  in  every 
branch  of  human  effort  and  industry.  Then  it  behooves  every  young  man, 
and  every  young  woman,  too,  to  arm  for  the  conflict.  If  mere  breadwinning 
is  your  lowly  aim,  even  in  that  you  will  realize  a  great  advantage  by  having 
the  highest  education  possible  to  attain.  A  difference  in  natural  talents  will 
of  course  do  much  to  equalize  in  some  cases  the  disadvantages  to  be'suffered 
from  want  of  discipline  and  culture;  but  suppose  that  the  superior  talents  are 
on  the  same  side  with  the  better  education,  where  will  the  unfortunate  self- 
made,  half-educated  contestant  appear  on  such  a  battlefield?  Whether  or 
not  it  is  true,  in  the  language  of  the  old  aphorism,  that  “knowledge  is  power,” 
no  one  can  doubt  that  knowledge  is  a  means  of  power.  If  we  but  properly 
use  the  means  the  end  can  be  attained,  and  success  will  surely  follow;  and 
with  success  comes  happiness;  so  that  “Finis  coronat  opus.” 

And  now  young  ladies  and  gentlemen  of  the  graduating  classes,  although 
what  has  already  been  said  was  intended  to  engage  your  attention  in  common 
with  all  this  audience,  I  wish  to  say  a  few  words  especially  to  you.  I  speak 
to  the  young  women  as  well  as  to  the  young  men,  because  the  time  has  passed 
when  woman  was  regarded  as  an  inferior  being,  fit  only  to  be  the  slave  or 
the  plaything  of  her  lord  and  master,  man.  Her  equality,  if  not  her  inde¬ 
pendence,  is  now  recognized.  Her  mental  powers  are  admitted  to  be  more 
acute,  if  not  so  strong  and  vigorous  as  those  of  her  brothers.  This  university 
makes  no  distinction  between  its  students  on  account  of  sex;  and  the  girls 
have  a  clear  track  and  an  even  start  with  the  boys  in  running  the  race  for 
every  prize  within  the  gift  of  this  faculty.  And  when,  as  is  usual  in  this 
University,  and  as  we  have  seen  exemplified  to-day,  with  smiling  eyes  and 
laughing  lips  they  stretch  forth  their  rosy  fingers  to  claim  the  laurel  crown, 
which  of  you  young  men  can  envy  them  a  victory  so  sweetly  won?  Although 
not  equal  to  man  in  physical  strength,  in  her  moral  nature  woman  is  admitted 
to  be  his  superior;  and  she  is  now,  in  this  age  of  progress,  beginning  to  dem¬ 
onstrate  that  she  is  his  intellectual  equal.  Then  let  me  say  to  all  the  students, 
young  ladies  and  young  men  alike,  especially  to  those  who  soon  go  forth  from 
these  halls  to  return  no  more,  that  you  owe  a  grave  and  onerous  duty  to 
yourselves  and  to  your  country.  Your  more  rigorous  mental  discipline, 
your  more  careful  culture,  your  more  bountiful  store  of  knowledge  has  given 
you  the  right  and  imposed  upon  you  the  duty  of  leadership  in  the  intellectual 
world.  Of  course  I  would  not  have  you  believe  that  you  are  to  be  admitted 
at  once  into  the  rank  of  savants,  but  you  are  started  on  that  road,  and  if  you 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS  —  URBANA 


20 


:  V 

UNIVERSITY  ADDRESS. 


N301 12100524864A 


do  not  turn  back,  but  persevere,  you  will  in  time  reach  bLLOih  Jpxv/UU.  pj-C'ClXlI* 
nence. 

It  may  be  as  well  for  one  who  has  undergone  the  twenty  years  lucubra¬ 
tions  to  say  a  few  words  to  those  budding,  if  not  blooming,  branches  of 
Blackstonian  stock  who  are  preparing  at  an  early  day  to  ornament  our  court 
rooms  with  their  oratory.  You  are  doubtless  well  grounded  in'  the  princi¬ 
ples  of  the  common  law,  and  have  tasted  of  that  fountain  of  recondite  learn¬ 
ing  which  flourished  and  found  its  source  in  the  wise  and  pacific  sway  of  the 
great  Emperor  Justinian;  but  do  not  imagine,  my  dear  young  friends,  that 
you  know  it  quite  all.  Our  chosen  science  has  no  limits  to  the  field  it  opens 
for  exploration;  and  the  gray  haired  sage  who  has  spent  fifty  years  in  trac¬ 
ing  legal  principles  to  their  fountain  head,  and  in  finding  precedents  for  ex¬ 
isting  cases,  still  finds  himself  a  student,  and,  as  the  years  roll  on,  he  is  still 
willing  to  remain  one,  so  long  as  courts  and  reporters  continue  to  illuminate 
the  by-paths  of  legal  learning  with  their  hundred  annual  volumes  of  judicial 
sunlight.  In  the  legal  profession,  more  perhaps  than  in  any  other,  it  may  be 
truly  said: 

“The  heights  by  great  men  reached  and  kept, 

Were  not  attained  by  sudden  flight; 

But  they,  while  their  companions  slept, 

Were  toiling  upwards  in  the  night.” 

Then,’  young  lawyers,  let  me  press  upon  you  the  importance  of  showing  to 
your  fellow  citizens  of  Texas  that  you  appreciate  the  advantages  offered  you 
by  your  native  State  in  a  great  University.  Rebuke  those  parsimonious 
patriots  who  begrudge  to  our  youth  the  benefits  of  free  professional  educa¬ 
tion.  Show  them  in  your  lives  and  in  your  patriotic  achievements  that  Texas 
has  lost  nothing  in  the  expense  and  care  bestowed  upon  your  education. 

“Let  all  the  ends  thou  aim’st  at  be  thy  country’s, 

Thy  G-od’s  and  truth ;  then  if  thou  fall’st,  0 !  Cromwell, 

Thou  fall’st  a  blessed  martvr.” 

*/ 

I  well  satisfied  that  no  wiser  use  has  ever  been  made  of  a  dollar  of  the  pub¬ 
lic  money  or  an  acre  of  the  public  lands  than  has  been  done  in  the  endow¬ 
ment  of  this  University. 

Whatever  may  be  the  result  to  individuals  pursuing  particular  callings, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  education  of  thousands  of  her  sons  and  daugh¬ 
ters  at  this  University  will  be  of  great  and  lasting  benefit  to  Texas.  With 
the  brightest  of  her  intellects  educated  to  the  highest  degree,  with  all  her 
people  well  informed  on  all  current  topics  of  general  knowledge,  'with  her 
boundless  material  resources  and  her  devotion  to  the  cause  of  free  govern¬ 
ment,  our  great  empire  State  must  achieve  a  career  unequaled  in  the  past  by 
anything  known  in  the  history  of  states  or  nations. 

Then  with  one  University,  with  one  general  system  of  public  education, 
with  one  purpose,  to  serve  with  fidelity  our  State  and  country,  let  the  whole 
people  of  Texas  resolve  forever  to  preserve  her  greatness  unimpaired  and  her 
territory  undivided. 


